September 13, 2020

WELCOME TO ST ANDREW’S ON THE TERRACE

Today’s service is led by Wendy and Andrew Matthews

GATHERING

Today is River Sunday

When we reflect on rivers, all they bring us and all we owe them

This place is a sacred space

One of the places in which we consider, pray,

receive and respond to grace and beauty

One of the places where we can be challenged to hear

the demands of the divine and the planet

In this month, on this day, in this place,

we journey the River of Life.

 

PROCESSIONAL HYMN AA 85 ‘Let justice roll down like a river’
Words and Music © 1994 Colin Gibson Hope Publishing Company (3 verses)

Refrain:
Let justice roll down like a river,
let justice roll down like a sea,
let justice roll down like a river,
let justice begin through me.

1. Justice for all who go hungry,
crying to God to be fed,
left in a world of abundance
to beg for a morsel of bread.
Refrain

2. Justice for those who are homeless,
victims of warfare or need,
trapped on the borders of no-where,
lost in the canyons of greed
Refrain

3. Justice for all who are powerless,
yearning for freedom in vain,
plundered, and robbed of their birth-right,
silently bearing their pain.
Refrain
WELCOME
Kia ora tatou.
Kia ora.
CALL TO WORSHIP
We call to the rivers to worship with us:
the Clutha, Rakaia, Manawatu, and Waikato,
all rivers that flow to the sea.
We invite the streams to sing:
Trout and water crays, inanga whitebait,
Cockabullies and eels sing praise.
We invite the river birds to add their praise.
Whio, and mallard duck,
Kingfisher and dragonflies call their praise.
We join with the waters in their hymn of praise:
waterfalls, singing streams,
rushing rapids and still pools,
ripples that dance at the river mouth.
Sing, river, sing praise to all creation.
Adapted from Season of Creation worship resources www.seasonofcreation.com

PRAYER
We remember the rivers across our planet,
rivers that are the lifeblood of Earth
and vital for all forms of life.
We remember the streams of our past,
the pools and ponds where we played
and the feeling of celebration
as we splashed each other.
We remember and rejoice.
We give thanks for rivers,
streams that flow with the water of life.
We acknowledge and confess
that we have become alienated from Earth
and have polluted the rivers of our garden planet.
We are sorry.
We have polluted our rivers with poisons.
We have treated our streams as waste dumps.
We have turned living waters into death-traps.
We have wasted precious waters in luxury living.
We need to be taught to love Earth
and return to Earth as our home.
Shalom! Shalom!
We are coming home!
As we come home to Earth,
As we seek to love our home,
As we seek to care for our kin,
Open our hearts.

Creation’s glory fills our planet.
May we discern the vibrant presence among us and our kin in creation, especially in the rivers, the streams and waterways of Earth. Help us empathise with creatures who are suffering. May our spirits lift and rejoice with the vibrant world of the rivers and waterways of our planet.
Amen. Adapted from Season of Creation worship resources
JESUS PRAYER Jim Cotter paraphrase

Eternal Spirit
Life-Giver, Pain-Bearer, Love-Maker,
source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
loving God, in whom is heaven:
the hallowing of your name
echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed
by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done
by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test,
strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory
of the power that is love, now and for ever.
Amen.
LIGHTING THE RAINBOW ROOM CANDLE
TIME WITH CHILDREN Ellen Murray
BLESSING THE CHILDREN (All stand)
We send you to the Rainbow Room to hear stories, ask questions and have fun together.
We bless you. Amen.
PASSING THE PEACE
Traditionally we shake hands to pass the peace and say “peace be with you.”
Now that Covid is here we ask that you pass the peace without shaking hands.
THE WORD IN TEXTS Wendy Matthews
Hebrew Bible Ezekiel 47: 1-12
Gospel John 7: 37 -39
REFLECTION “Rivers of Life” Andrew Matthews

CONTEMPORARY READING Wendy Matthews
From This is All: by Aidan Chambers

I thought how lovely and how strange a river is. A river is a river, always there, and yet the water flowing through it is never the same water and is never still. It’s always changing and is always on the move. And over time the river itself changes too. It widens and deepens as it rubs and scours, gnaws and kneads, eats and bores its way through the land. Even the greatest rivers- the Nile and the Ganges, the Yangtze and the Mississippi, the Amazon and the great grey-green greasy Limpopo all set about with fever trees - must have been no more than trickles and flickering streams before they grew into mighty rivers.

Are people like that? I wondered. Am I like that? Always me, like the river itself, always flowing but always different, like the water flowing in the river, sometimes walking steadily along andante, sometimes surging over rapids furioso, sometimes meandering with hardly any visible movement tranquilo, lento, sometimes gurgling with pleasure, sometimes sparkling in the sun, sometimes appassionato, sometimes misterioso, sometimes staccato, sometimes vivace, and always, I hope, amoroso.

Do I change like a river, widening and deepening, eddying back on myself sometimes, bursting my banks sometimes when there’s too much water, too much life in me, and sometimes dried up from lack of rain? Will the I that is me grow and widen and deepen? Or will I stagnate and become an arid riverbed? Will I allow people to dam me up and confine me so that I flow only where they want? Will I allow them to turn me into a canal to use for they own purposes? Or will I make sure I flow freely, coursing my way through the land and ploughing a valley of my own?
RESPONSE
For the Word in scripture,
for the Word among us,
for the Word within us,
we give thanks.
HYMN
ST ANDREW’S SINGERS ‘The River’
Words © Joy Cowley, Music © 2014 Vivien Chiu (3 verses)
Life is like a river
that flows towards the sea.
It has a small beginning,
increasing gradually
until it's in a larger place,
a current deep and wide,
giving its abundance
to the land on either side.
Chorus
And I have a question
to ask you, my friend.
Where does the sea begin?
Where does the river end?

The river has its secrets.
In its depths it knows
the nature of the ocean
where its water flows.
It hears the seabirds singing.
It feels the touch of foam.
The sea is always calling
the river to come home.
Chorus (congregation joins singers)
And I have a question
to ask you, my friend.
Where does the sea begin?
Where does the river end?

Life is like a river
and deep inside my mind,
the call of love grows stronger
as I leave each day behind.
We move with the current
of this unseen mystery.
Already we have knowledge
of the presence of the sea.
Chorus (congregation joins singers)
And I have a question
to ask you, my friend.
Where does the sea begin?
Where does the river end?
VISUAL REFLECTION ON RIVERS AS OFFERING RECEIVED:
Music Vltava or “The Moldau” by Bedřich Smetana
OFFERING PRAYER
Like the disciples we sometimes feel we have little to offer, and that what we have won’t make a difference.
We bring our gifts and ourselves in the trust that we together our intentions and energy will multiply, and bring justice and joy to others.
Amen.

We recognise and bless the gifts brought to the table, and those which wing
their way electronically from our banks to the church’s account.
LIFE IN THE COMMUNITY OF ST ANDREW’S
People share notices and visitors are welcomed. If you have a notice not already in the order of service, please move to the front row, ready to speak briefly from the lectern.
For the benefit of newcomers, please introduce yourself before you begin.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE Patricia Booth
CIRCLE OF PRAYER
We think today of the people of Botswana. We remember the detainees of Manus and Nauru Islands, yearning that their cases be resolved. In New Zealand, we remember those who work this election season; candidates, members of political parties and voters. Here in the Central Presbytery, we pray for the leaders and people of Inglewood United Church.
PRAYER FOR ST ANDREW’S

Renew your people, God,
and renew our life in this place.
Give us a new spirit of unity
with all who follow the Way of Jesus
and new bonds of love
with people of other faiths.

Bless the city in which we live
that it may be a place
where honest dealing,
good government,
the desire for beauty,
and the care for others flourish.

Bless this church
that what we know of your will
may become what we do,
and what we believe
the strong impulse
of our worship and work.

Amen

HYMN AA54 ‘God of the Galaxies’
Words: © 1992 Shirley Erena Murray
Music: by Douglas Mews ©1992 Hope Publishing Co. (4 verses)

God of the galaxies spinning in space,
God of the smallest seed, our living source,
yours is the gift of this beautiful place.
Let us care for your garden
and honour the earth.

Careless and covetous, gross are our greeds,
taking the riches the garden provides,
wasting its goodness, forgetting its needs.
Let us care for your garden
and honour the earth.

Forests and rivers are ravaged and die,
raped is the land till it bleeds in its clay,
silenced the birdsong and plundered the sea.
Let us care for your garden
and honour the earth.

Life is a holy thing, life is a whole,
linking each creature and blessing us all,
making connections of body and soul.
Let us care for your garden
and honour the earth
BLESSING
We go now, in peace and in love
and we take that love with us
to our wider community
to live justly, respectfully
and with compassion.
SUNG AMEN